BANDT BASHING
Greens leader Adam Bandt has been criticised by both major parties for “spreading misinformation” and allegedly encouraging pro-Palestine protesters to target electoral offices, The Age reports. Labor MPs called Bandt a “fraud” and a “liar”, while Opposition Leader Peter Dutton supported the criticism, implying that Bandt was encouraging antisemitism. In response, Bandt said “I will not be lectured to about peace and non-violence by people who backed the invasion of Gaza,” and attempted to move a motion to condemn the government in relation to Australian-made parts that went into aircraft used to bomb Gaza. The Australian, running the headline “Leaders unite against party of anti-Semitism”, is also reporting that Liberal MP Bridget Archer and more than a dozen crossbenchers from both houses delivered a letter to Anthony Albanese defending the independence of the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the opposition leader suggested cutting ties.
Meanwhile, the government is increasing its criticism of Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan, highlighting that the policy, first announced two years ago, is yet to be outlined, Guardian Australia reports. Labor is on the attack in Parliament and through social media, emulating a Rudd-era campaign that brings into question the prospective locations of the nuclear reactors. Dutton has called the attacks “childish” saying “No-one is proposing that a zero-emissions nuclear power plant would be built on anything other than an end-of-life coal-fired power station site.” An X (formerly Twitter) post by the prime minister on the issue has been affixed with a “community note”, reports Sky News, saying that “The risk of accidents in nuclear power plants is low and declining. The consequences of an accident or terrorist attack are minimal compared with other commonly accepted risks,” after Albanese mentioned the “threat” of nuclear for towns near a reactor.
COPS FAILING ON DV
“When police fail to follow operating procedures, the consequences can be deadly,” says a damning ABC report into police responses to domestic violence. The report details failures Australia-wide, with NSW police identifying 171 breaches of the force’s own domestic violence operating procedures from 102 examined complaints. Breached firearms procedures, failure to protect children, failure to collect evidence and statements, and missing or falsified records are just some of the breaches highlighted by the report. Women’s Community Shelters CEO Annabelle Daniel has laid some of the blame on administrative workloads for police, saying “It takes about 150 pages of reporting in the police operating system to properly and fully record a domestic and family violence incident.” A report by news.com.au has reminded Australians that State of Origin, played last night, is a particularly dangerous time for women, with men’s violence increasing up to 40% in NSW. The AFL grand final has a similar effect in Victoria, with experts identifying an increase in gambling and alcoholism spurred on by major sporting events as a catalyst for the increased violence.
Meanwhile, NSW private schools receive about $24.9 million in federal government funding each, while public schools get only $6.5 million, a report in The Daily Telegraph has found. Over the next four years, this translates to just $14.3 billion for 2,200 public schools and $24.2 billion for 970 independent schools. Teachers Federation NSW president Henry Rajendra has said the information is unsurprising, with public school teachers and administrators fighting every day against underfunding. It comes as Cranbrook School in Sydney has been slammed by the government for being uncooperative in relation to an investigation into its eligibility to receive Commonwealth funding, the ABC reports. The school was subject to a Four Corners investigation in March after allegations that its former headmaster promoted a teacher who sent sexually explicit messages to a former student. Greens Senator Penny Allman-Payne lashed the school, saying “we have a private school that rakes in millions of dollars in government funding, as well as fees, has money coming out its eyeballs and it can’t pull together a process to give to you in three months?”
SAY WHAT?
I hope you enjoyed your debut.
Nate Myles
The assistant coach of Queensland’s State of Origin team berated 20-year-old NSW player Joseph Suaalii after he was sent off on debut for a sickening tackle on Reece Walsh. Origin is famous for violence, but this was apparently the wrong sort.
CRIKEY RECAP
“Trade Minister Don Farrell told the hearing the immunity claim based on NACC advice was a ‘first’ at a budget estimates session.
‘I have to say this is the first time in my experience where a direction from the NACC has directed an official not to make a public statement,’ Farrell said.
Addressing Nationals Senator Ross Cadell, who was asking questions about the scandal, Farrell went on: ‘This does present some significant issues which I myself would like to get clarified. You and I both voted for this legislation and obviously this is how it’s being applied.
‘The witness obviously has to comply, I believe, with the direction of the NACC. She has no choice.’”
“Henderson’s Media Watch Dog column, published in The Australian every Friday, tore into ‘The Saturday Paper’s Antoinette Lattouf‘, claiming she ‘diminishes’ her own interview with the former prime minister. Henderson labelled the Schwartz Media product as ‘boring’, before teeing off at Lattouf’s journalism over the course of the interview. He also made a number of snarky remarks referencing Islam.
The only problem, of course, is that Lattouf doesn’t work for The Saturday Paper, which also happens to have a daily morning column titled ‘The Briefing’. Nor is there any indication anywhere that she is a Muslim. We asked Henderson whether he looked up Lattouf (or anything at all) ahead of publication, whether he contacted her ahead of publication, and whether his column was fact-checked.
We got a very prompt and lengthy response that for reasons unknown was at pains to mention that Peter FitzSimons attended a Uniting Church school, as well as referencing that our email, sent at just after 4pm on a Monday, came through at ‘Gin and Tonic Time’. Must be nice.”
“In 2020, in his child health clinic in Gaza City, a newly built, welcoming space with the scent of fresh paint, Mohammed and I spoke over coffee about living, enduring and dying in Gaza: ‘If you will not die from cancer, you will die from airstrike. And if you will not die from airstrike, you will die from starvation,’ Mohammed reflected. ‘Death is working with us here in Gaza. It’s here. Nobody will be the first, nobody will be the second. The majority of our life is built on believing in death.’
Like many others who have for so long held on to land and home in Gaza, Mohammed had made the distressing decision in recent weeks that leaving is the only option. He was seeking support for visas to Australia, first for his extended family of 22, then his immediate family, and then in the most pained request to me on WhatsApp: ‘I need to get my 16-year-old son out. He will be sick if he stays… I want to send him to Australia. Please keep him with your kids.’”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
It was legal boilerplate. Trump made it sound like a threat to his life (The New York Times) ($)
Allies back Modi for third term after election setback (BBC)
Ukraine using Germany’s weapons to strike Russia would be a dangerous step, Putin warns (euronews)
Netanyahu says Israel ‘prepared for very intense operation’ near Lebanon (Al Jazeera)
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft sends first astronaut crew to orbit (Reuters)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Australia is on the brink of recession. So why does the RBA think we are spending too much? — Greg Jericho (The Guardian): “The latest GDP figures reveal that the RBA has got its wish of an economy growing so slowly that it teeters on the edge of a recession. Now we wait to see if unemployment also starts to falter and tip us over that edge. No we are not in a recession but cripes, the March quarter national accounts show an economy performing as badly as it can without actually being in recession.
And things are no better if we look at annual growth. If we take out the pandemic period — when economic data really made no sense — the 1.1% annual growth of GDP is the slowest we have seen in Australia since March 1992. Take out population growth and we have now had five consecutive quarters of the economy going backwards. It’s the first time that has happened since we started recording per capita growth back in 1973. That is not a record you want to be setting.”
A political wrecking ball could destroy urgent housing before it’s even built — Alexandra Smith (the SMH): “[Stuart] Ayres was not restrained when he issued a statement on the Liberals’ assault on development: ‘Not only would this proposed legislation undermine the transport-oriented development program,’ he thundered, ‘but [it] would set a dangerous precedent where key policies, critical to the operation of the NSW planning system, could be abolished or amended on a whim.’
Premier Chris Minns has made it clear that the west must stop taking all the growth and the eastern and northern suburbs must share the load of a growing city. Minns has made housing his government’s No.1 issue and with ambitious targets to meet, his political future will be judged against his success or failure to deliver the homes we need. The opposition is searching for ways to ensure Minns fails. But in its political expediency, the Liberals are also bitterly split on how to approach housing. There is a clear generational divide.”
